National Vinquirer. Bonny Doon's Randall Grahm got a little bit of ink last year when he published a bizarre Onion-esque tabloid called the National Vinquirer. It's a send-up of wine snobbery, various wine trends and other wineries. One story talks about using natural corks (rendered obsolete by the screwtops Grahm favors) as sex toys. Another bears the headline "Al-Qaeda is Arabic for 'Yellow Tail.'"
     Anyway, it was available last weekend at the Bonny Doon booth at the N.O. Wine and Food Experience. You can check out a PDF of it here.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 6:58 PM
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NOWFE 2004. It was hard to keep my mind on the wine, because I was fixated on another consumer product. But there were some hits.
     Until that Saturday, I'd never heard of Claiborne & Churchill, a small winery in San Luis Obispo. But they sell a dry Riesling and a dry Gewürztraminer. The latter still has a hint of sweetness in it. Both of them were terrific.
     My meager notes also make reference to a Petite Sirah by Mettler; the Rodney Strong Jane's Vineyard Reserve Pinot Noir; a Pinot Noir from a new Chalone brand called Orogeny; and a wine called Persistence from Reynolds Family.
     And while the 2000 Rion Reserve Pinot Noir from Chehalem didn't do much for me, I really liked the 2001 version. (Or was it the other way around?)
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 6:32 PM
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